MySource Matrix Developer

MySource Matrix Developer Newsletter Issue 53
Friday 9th December 2005

covers versions 3.4.7 stable, 3.6.3 stable, 3.7.0 development

News

Mysource Matrix 3.6.3 Released

A new stable version of MySource Matrix was released for the 3.6 branch on Monday. Version 3.6.3 is primarily a bug fix release but does contain one new feature. Along with the 18 bug fixes, a new User Group Link Manager asset was added.

Option List Styles Removed

The option list question in custom forms previously printed it's own style information in the output HTML. This was not valid XHTML. The styles have now been removed. This has also required the removal of the orientation setting, which was only used for the style output. You will now need to use your own styles to change the orientation to vertical or horizontal and to remove bullet points from the list (if required). The style information below is an example of that produced by the previous version of the option list question:

<style type="text/css">
    ul.tickboxes {
        list-style-type: none;
        margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;
    }
    ul.horizontal-tickboxes li {
        display: inline; margin-right: 15px;
    }
</style>

Note that that change has been made to both 3.6.x stable and 3.7.0 development as it is a XHTML compliance change.

Updating Links Does Not Update Assets

Previously, updating an asset's links would also update the asset's version and updated date. This has now been removed to stop conflicts when using Oracle server replication. An asset's version and date is now only updated if the asset itself has changed, not just if it has been linked in a new location. Asset links still carry their own updated date and user ID.

This has also reduced the number of queries executed when creating links and assets.

Note that this change has only been made to 3.7.0 development.

New Features

Remote Content URL Whitelists

Added to: 3.4.7 stable, 3.6.3 stable, 3.7.0 development

The remote content asset now has an option that allows you to specify a list of URLs that the remote content asset will fetch. This was done to stop "the bad guys" from using a remote content asset as an anonymiser. When *all* the links are re-written to point back to the remote content asset (and if the white list in *not* empty) only those remote URLs that are based on the white listed URLs are allowed through.

This is a security enhancement and has been added to all supported branches of MySource Matrix.

Content Tagging

Added to: 3.7.0 development

A new system has been developed that allows editors to tag assets with thesaurus terms. The content tagging system can examine the content of an asset and suggest thesaurus terms that may be relevant if you have the search package installed. You are able to cascade content tags (similar to permissions) and assign them weightings. Content tagging is performed on a new screen applied to all assets.

In the future, content tags will be used to relate content together and a new asset type (now in development) will allow you to list other assets similar to a specified asset based on the content tags applied.

Asset Finder In Simple Edit

Added to: 3.7.0 development

The simple edit interface now has the asset map frame like the administration interface except that the simple asset map is displayed instead of the fully-featured administration asset map. The asset map frame is hidden by default but appears when the user selects "Change" from an asset finder. Once the selection has been made, the asset map is hidden again.

Planned Development

Multiple Plots On Data Source Graph

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 16th December 2005

The data source graphing asset can currently graph a single data source. New development is being done to allow the graphing asset to plot multiple data sources on a single graph. For example, you can graph the number of signups to a forum each month in a bar graph and overlay a line graph showing the cumulative value of users in the forum over time.

Ipb Bridge

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 16th December 2005

A new bridge is being developed to connect to an Invision Power Board installation. The IPB Bridge will allow you to view all users, groups, forums and polls in your IPB installation. The new authentication system also allows you to let your users log into your MySource Matrix system to view and edit content. Users in the banned list can be allowed or denied access to the system as required.sf

Roles System

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 13th Janurary 2006

A new role based system is being developed MySource Matrix. Roles will be created by a System Administrator and then used within the permissions and workflow systems. Each asset will have a Roles screen to allow administrators to assign Users or User Groups to a role. Role assignments will allow cascading in the same way as permissions do. When selecting Users or User Groups to assign permissions to, or when adding them to workflow steps, a Role could be added instead. In this case, the role represents a user or a group of users but differs depending on the asset to which it is assigned.

Related Content Listing

To be added to : 3.7.0 development
Estimated start date: already in development
Estimated end date : 23rd December 2005

Upgrading

3.6.3 Stable

Run step_02.php: no
Run step_03.php: yes
Run compile_locale.php: yes

Additional queries: No additional queries are required for upgrades.

Additional comments: If the option list question type is used, add style information into your designs as it has now been removed for XHTML compliance. See the general news section for details.

To ensure emails are being sent for all workflow notifications:

1. edit [SYSTEM ROOT]/data/private/conf/messaging_service.inc
2. anywhere "asset.workflow.invitation" exists, add after on a new line: "asset.workflow.invitation.*".
3. anywhere "asset.workflow.announce" exists, add after on a new line: "asset.workflow.announce.*".

3.7.0 Development

Run step_02.php: yes
Run step_03.php: yes
Run compile_locale.php: yes

Additional queries:

DROP TABLE sq_sch_idx_wgt_dflt;

CREATE INDEX sq_internal_msg_type ON sq_internal_msg(type);
DROP INDEX sq_thes_term_termid;

Additional comments: If the option list question type is used, add style information into your designs as it has now been removed for XHTML compliance. See the general news section for details.

To ensure emails are being sent for all workflow notifications:

1. edit [SYSTEM ROOT]/data/private/conf/messaging_service.inc
2. anywhere "asset.workflow.invitation" exists, add after on a new line: "asset.workflow.invitation.*".
3. anywhere "asset.workflow.announce" exists, add after on a new line: "asset.workflow.announce.*".

New Bugs Added To Bug Tracker

Notes:

Bug #762 (Auto refresh interupts move/clone etc) was submitted by Richard on the 7th of July 2005 but has been marked as Will Not Fix as the problem only occurs when MySource Matrix is checking for popup blockers and the fix would be extremely complicated.

Bug #739 (Asset Clone/Link intermitent) was submitted by Richard on the 28th of June 2005 but was marked as Can Not Replicate after a developer could not replicate the bug and Richard confirmed that the bug no longer exists.

Feature #976 (Ability to run only a single component of compile_locales) was posted by Tom on the 13th of October 2005 but was marked as not being a bug because the feature cannot be added in the way described and a similar feature already exists.

Bug #978 (Trigger not working on uploaded associated design archive files) was submitted by Anthony Barnes on the 18th of October but was marked as Can Not Replicate after a developer could not replicate the problem in the 3.6 branch.

Bug #995 (Metadata appearing in listings not showing apostrophes or hypens) was submitted by Anthony Barnes on the 1st of November 2005 but was marked as Can Not Replicate after it could not be replicated in any branch.

Bug #999 (Asset list items are invalid HTML by default) was submitted by Raena on the 4th of November 2005 but was marked as Will Not Fix as this problem can be solved by using a keyword in the NAME field of the DIV to make the DIV ID unique.

Bug #1039 (Improper use of STYLE element inline (custom form asset/tickbox list)) was submitted by Raena but was marked as a duplicate of bug #962 (Option List uses embeded style that is not valid XHTML) and has been closed.

New Feature Requests Added To Bug Tracker

Bugs Fixed In The Bug Tracker

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